Kahalua and Pecan Baked Brie

This is one of my favorite recipes for brie. I love baked brie of all types but this one has an amazing sauce that compliments the creamy cheese. And it is much easier than some other recipes that wrap the brie in pastry.

Ingredients
Big wheel of Brie
1 C Kahalua
1 C Brown Sugar (I used Splenda)
1 C Whole Pecans

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cut the top rind off the Brie but leave the rest of it on. The rind is edible. Put the cheese in an oven safe dish and bake for 12-15 minutes until warm.

While the cheese is cooking, put the Kahalua and Brown Sugar in a pot and bring to a boil. Once you get a few bubbles, reduce the heat to a simmer to create a syrup. Once the cheese is done, put the pecans in the syrup then top the Brie with the syrup.

Serve with crackers or bread.

Ohana at Disney's Polynesian Resort

For our last night in Disney, we went to the Polynesian Resort for dinner at Ohana. The Howles had eaten here before and were VERY excited to return. I was not as excited. Being from Hawaii, I am not a fan of cheesy Hawaiian themed events and this entire resort and it's restaurants seem to fall in this category. But they were insistent that this place was awesome and the bread pudding was THE BEST EVER! I am so glad that they were right and I was very wrong.

We had to wait a few minutes for our reservations so we wandered around the resort. It was beautiful with lots of tropical greenery everywhere. There is a man-made beach that faces the Magic Kingdom and is a perfect place to watch the nightly fireworks. I definitely want to stay here on our next visit.

Once we were seated, our server brought our drinks then a big bowl of salad with honey lime dressing. This is one of Disney many family style restaurants where they bring out big platters of food for the table to share. Next came the appetizers, honey coriander chicken wings and pork potstickers. This was the point when I first realized I had misjudged this place. Ordinarily, I do not like chicken wings but these were delicious! The potstickers were crispy and flavorful. They bring out as much as you want and we requested another appetizer platter.


Next came the skewers. They have a huge, open oak fire grill in the middle of the restaurant and they grill skewers of steak, pork, turkey and shrimp. Again, I am normally not a big fan of turkey but I liked the turkey here. The steak and pork were great too. It was all cooked perfectly and the oak fire grill added such a good flavor to all the meats. Each of the meats had their own dipping sauce which just made them even better.

But the shrimp was my absolute favorite. I must have eaten at least 20 grilled shrimp. They kept coming around with more skewers and giving us more food. I think Curtis and I probably ate the most out of the group. I could not stop eating the shrimp!


The sides served with the skewers were vegetable lo mein and stir fried vegetables. The sides were just as good as the skewers. The vegetables included broccoli and snow peas and they were some of the best vegetables we had all week, perfectly cooked! Dessert was bread pudding and it was so good it is getting its own post.

Overall, the food was excellent and one of the best meals of the week. But the absolute highlight of the evening for me was the entertainment.


There was a Hawaiian entertainer named Malia. She was the epitome of what I don't like about tropical themed events, fake leis, obnoxious songs and all. Pat even asked me if I thought she really was Hawaiian and I said no. Again, I ended up being wrong. As she came by our table I noticed her name tag. All Disney Cast Members, regardless of their positions, wear name tags with their name and home town. She was from my home town, Makakilo! This is a huge deal because Makakilo is so small that it wasn't even our official mailing address. The city in our mailing address was Eva Beach which was the next largest town nearby with a post office. So she and I chatted for a while about Hawaii. She was so funny and reminded me of one of my friends who still lives in Makaliko. Then she lined all the children up and taught them a hula song and dance. It was one of the few I actually remember from childhood, The Hukilau! It is extremely cheesy but by this point I was so full of food and the Aloha spirit that I really enjoyed it!

-Joy

Ohana's Bread Pudding

This is the dessert that the Howles have been talking about for as long as I have known them. They LOVE it and it is probably the main reason they love Ohana so much. Once I finally got to try it for myself, I was not disappointed. It is the best bread pudding I have ever eaten. When they serve it at Ohana, they pour the the bananas foster sauce over the top at the table. The sauce really makes it. I may have to try making it at home for Jeff's birthday.

Ingredients
5 eggs
3 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cup sugar
8 cups French bread

1. In bowl mix eggs, milk , salt, sugar and nutmeg. Set aside.
2. Cut bread in medium pieces, place on cookie sheet pan put in 350 degree oven.
3. Bake bread until lightly toasted, about 15 minutes. Remove bread and place in egg and milk mixture.
4. Place mixture in a greased 10-inch cake pan and bake at 325 degree for 1 hour.
5. Let stand 5 minutes, serve hot with ice cream and top with Banana Foster Sauce

Banana Foster Sauce
4 oz sugar
4 oz brown sugar
4 oz corn syrup
4 oz unsalted butter
1cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1cup spiced rum
1cup banana slices

1. Combine sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and half of heavy cream in a large pan. Bring to a boil and slowly add remaining heavy cream keeping mixture at a steady boil.

2. Add spiced rum and flambe.

3. Candy will brown slightly; cook 3 minutes until candy forms into a firm ball in cold water. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Add sliced bananas. Serve warm.

It is delicious! -Joy

SC Restaurant Week

It is Restaurant Week in SC. This is a great chance to try that fancy new restaurant or maybe return to an old favorite for a little less expensive meal. Restaurants in Greenville, Columbia, Charleston and the Beach are all offering 3 course meals for $30. Click here for participating restaurants and their menus. And make plans soon, it ends on Sunday.

La Cava de Tequila at De San Angel Inn

This is a new restaurant/bar in in the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot and their specialty is, obviously, tequila. The Mexican Pavilion is one of my favorite in the World Showcase in Epcot because it has a great atmosphere, a cool ride and interesting shopping, all in an Aztec pyramid.

The new addition of La Cava makes it even better. We enjoyed our margaritas so much that we had to bring Julie and Curtis back for a second visit. The menu included over 70 types of tequila. We tried the Margarita flight with 5 different versions. My favorite was the Pepino, with El Mayor Blanco Tequila with trile sec, carmelized pineapple juice, cucumber and agave nectar syrup with lemon grass salt. (Second one from the front in the picture.) Jeff's favorite was the Jalapeno, also with El Mayor Blanco Tequila, jalapeno lime juice and agave nectar syrup with hibiscus Himalayan salt rim. (First one in the picture.) The other margaritas in the sampler included Naranja Roja, with blood orange juice and hibiscus syrup topped with blood orange foam (red in the middle), Fruta Dela Pasion (orange with foam on top, our least favorite) and Aguacate (last one) with Midori and fresh avocado.

I wish I could have a Pepino or Jalapeno one right now! -Joy

California Grill

Our second night at Disney took Joy and I to our fanciest restaurant of the week, the California Grill. The California Grille is located on the top floor of the Contemporary Resort, which was one of the two original Walt Disney World hotels and is located on the monorail loop that takes guests to the Magic Kingdom. (The other original hotel is the Polynesian-you'll hear about that one later.) The California Grill overlooks the Magic Kingdom and even has an observation deck where you can watch the nightly firework shows. But you don't have to go outside to the deck to enjoy the view since the entire restaurant has floor to ceiling windows with a great view of the Magic Kingdom as well. Before dinner, Joy and I had drinks at the bar and watched that night's firework display. It was very cool to see them from that perspective, overlooking the park. This meal was the best of the vacation. And as I said above, the fanciest and most expensive. Almost everywhere we ate, you could wear jeans and t-shirts if you wanted. Pretty much everywhere on property was that way. But there are a few places with a dress code and this was one of them. Having to dress up was a nice change of pace from many of the places on property. You could also tell that this was a locals restaurant too. Many non-vacationers were enjoying dinner even on a Sunday night. To start our meal, we ordered the cheese board with 5 different cheeses and accompaniments and yellowfin tuna three ways appetizer. The cheese board was very good and like any cheese plate there are some that we liked better than others. The really interesting part was the pairings. We had honey, glazed nuts, cranberries, apple chutney and a raisin crostini.

The Yellowfin Tuna was poki, tartare and tataki styles. The tuna was such high quality. The preparations were so simple. Some of the best yellowfin, I've ever had.

Our entrees were exceptional. I have to say that mine might have been the best thing I've ever eaten. I had a Seared Ostrich Filet with Buttery Potato Puree, Wild Mushrooms, Globe Carrots, Fig and Honeyed Port Reduction. The best way I can describe it is it tasted like a beef scallop. The rich, buttery texture of a scallop with the savory taste of a great filet. The entire dish complemented each other. It was hard to pick out any one distinct ingredient. They just all worked together perfectly. I absolutely loved it. Makes me kind of sad I don't live in Orlando.
Joy had Spiced Tuna with Sweet Potato Puree, Mustard Greens, Red Wine Braised Beef Rib Ravioli, Natural Reduction. The spiced tuna was very good but the outstanding component of this dish was the braised beef rib ravioli with natural reduction. It oddly didn't match the rest of the dish, but boy was she glad it was on the plate. The beef was so tender and the reduction so rich. Definitely worth a try.

For dessert we had Valrhona Chocolate Cake. A Warm Chocolate Cake with Molten Center, House-made Salted Caramel Ice Cream, and Roasted Golden Pineapple. The molten chocolate cake was fairly standard but the Salted Caramel Ice Cream was crazy good. I've never had a ice cream quite like it. You could actually taste the salt. It was sweet and savory. Very nice. Overall, the California Grill was excellent. We highly recommend it and we'll definitely be going back the next time we visit Disney World.

-- Jeff

Kouzzina by Cat Cora

We arrived at Walt Disney World on Saturday Dec 5th. That afternoon we went to our the first park, EPCOT. Joy and I had dinner reservations that evening at Kouzzina in the Boardwalk resort right behind EPCOT. Kouzzina is a new restaurant where Disney has partnered with Iron Chef Cat Cora for her first signature restaurant.

The restaurant has a Mediterranean "theme" to it and is filled with photographs, maps, etc of the Mediterranean region. One of my favorite parts was the open-air show kitchen.



To start, we each got a flight of wine. Joy had the Cat Flight. These are all from Cat's "Coranation" line of Wines. She had a Sauvignon Blanc that had notes of ripe apple, blood orange and spice, a Chardonnay that Cat specifically designed to go with her Mediterranean style food, and a Pinot Noir with hints of cherries, cranberries and cinnamon.

I had the California Fruit Bomb flight. It had a nice Graff Family Grenache, Edna Valley Vineyards Syrah and a Zen of Zin Zinfandel. The Syrah was my favorite. For appetizer, we had a Saganaki, which was a skillet seared Haloumi cheese with grilled lemon and oregano. Of course it was awesome, it was seared cheese.















Something that was truly amazing was the complimentary bread and butter. Now bear with me here. The bread was a fairly typical but it was fresh baked. The interesting part was the the butter. It was sweet and topped with Hawaiian sea salt which gave the bread and butter an amazing kick when you got a bit of the salt.

For our entrees, Joy had the Fisherman's Stew which consisted of scallops, snapper, shellfish, and fennel. The broth of the stew was amazingly rich with a deep tomato and olive oil flavor. The seafood was cooked perfectly, but the broth was the stand out. We literally cleaned the bowl with the grilled bread that accompanied the stew.















For my entree, I had the Slow-cooked Lamb Shank with Gigantes Beans and Pepper Sauce. It was delicious. The lamb was so tender, I could easily pull it apart with a fork. I'd never had gigantes beans before and they were huge. The size of my thumb.



For dessert, we tried two items. The first were the Loukoumades which are Greek doughnuts drizzled with warm honey. They came with two dipping sauces: a raspberry and a vanilla cream. Overall they were good, but when I covered one of the doughnuts with the vanilla cream sauce it tasted just like a Krispy Kreme glazed! Our second dessert was a warm molten chocolate cake called the Budino Cake. Pretty standard as far as these cakes go. This particular kind of cake seemed to be a trend across WDW restaurants. We found it on quite a few menus.

With our desserts, we had a pot of Kouzzina Pressed Coffee with Cat's special blend. It had a rich, dark chocolaty flavor. It was so good, it's made Joy and I serious fans of pressed coffee.

Overall, Kouzzina was very good and it stemmed two trends for us (1) our love of french press coffee and (2) salting our bread and butter.

-- Jeff

Where have we been?

The happiest place on earth, that's where. As some of you already know, Joy and I haven't been posting much as of late mainly because we've been caught up in a very busy Christmas season.

Back at the beginning of December, Joy and I took a holiday vacation to Walt Disney World with the Varsity Howles (my mom and dad) and the Roses (my sister, Julie and brother-in-law, Curtis). Once our vacation was over and we were back in Greenville it was a crazy couple of days leading up to Christmas.

Now we're back and excited to share with you some of the really awesome meals we had while we were down in Florida visiting Mickey and company. When you mention Disney and food, most people think of Hamburgers, Chicken Fingers, Popcorn and Mickey-shaped Ice Creams, but there are some really amazing restaurants on the WDW property. Most of these restaurants will be found either within the World Showcase area of EPCOT or within the various hotels throughout the resort.

Over the next several posts, we'll take you on the culinary tour we got to experience first hand. We hope you enjoy.

- Jeff